Speaker
Description
The innermost regions of most galaxies are characterised by the presence of extremely dense nuclear star clusters, which sometimes appear alongside larger stellar structures known as nuclear stellar discs. Understanding the relationship between nuclear star clusters and nuclear stellar discs is challenging due to the large distances to other galaxies, which limits their analysis to integrated light. In this context, the Milky Way’s centre, which hosts both structures, serves as a unique template to understand their relationship and formation scenarios. Using photometric, metallicity, and kinematic catalogues, we analysed the connection between these two Galactic centre components and studied their stellar populations. We detected kinematic and metallicity gradients along the line of sight, suggesting a smooth transition between the nuclear stellar disc and cluster. Our results indicate that these two Galactic centre components might be part of the same structure, with the Milky Way's nuclear stellar disc being the extended edge of the nuclear star cluster.
